How could we Iranians miss Shahnameh? How have we Iranians and non-Iranians not learned from Shahnameh? How come Shahameh is not taught in every single school around the world? Why is this book not translated into every single language in the world?
These are the questions that anyone knowing about this great, magnificent, gigantic, and significant historic testimony called: Shahnameh, the Epic of the Kings, would ask. The quality of care for our human world is the main concept that can be learned from this marvelous story of life from the past.
What does this book symbolizes? Well, Story telling has a deep root in our Iranian culture, something that has helped our ancient culture survive all the attacks. Language is basically the heart of a culture, something that will survive along with a resilient culture. The art of story telling is most certainly passed down to us by Shahnameh. Geseh or saga assists us in making sense of the presence. How? Perhaps by realizing that the key to any problem is within us, we could make sense of what is occurring for us now. Stories tell us about how other people used their inner wisdom and inner strength to overcome challenges. Telling story for thousands of years has been the only way to transfer knowledge and information to next generations. Shahnameh, The Epic of the King is the best gathering of stories from one thousand years ago. In our childhood if we had the chance of hearing our grandparents reading stories from the Shahnameh, then we remember how we dreamed of becoming those great and brave heroes. Stories in Shahnameh describes life of many characters who can still be found in our real life.
Acknowledging and understanding this metaphoric communication that Shahnameh has taught us Iranians, we can recognize the the impact of childhood stories we have heard. Act of kindness, bravery, heoric actions, love for the mother earth, respect for animals and plants, hard work, and justice was only some of those values that Shahnameh tells us. I am sure we have not learned much from Shahnameh because our world is what it is today. Yet we should keep up the hope and relearn what was put together in this book for us. Now it is time we do this for our children. Even in our adult life we tell stories about various incidents every day.
People’s narratives tell us something important. We can understand the individual’s self-belief and perceptions through the lens of narratives. Families teach children this special social skill by telling them stories of how life looked like in their time. Now it is time for us to re-learn from Shahnameh and teach that to our children. I really wish Shahnameh would be taught in every single school in our world. Is it too selfish to wish?
My main interest is mental health and healthy relationship. I write mostly about how to explore mental health as a main source of having peace within our families and our communities.
I would like to promote peace, happiness, multicultural counseling and a healthy language in our daily life. I believe that we have to expand our understanding of mental health by viewing the cultural values into our ways of dealing with the world.
I like to emphasize on helping our youth as well as our next generations to integrate within whatever cultures they live in.
Note: This article was originally written and published in EzineArticles May 2, 2009 by this author.
